In the late 2015, the Centre of Excellence for Biodiversity and Molecular Plant Breeding (CroP-BioDiv) was declared, its patron institution if the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Agriculture and it gathers employees from five associate institutions: Institute for Adriatic Crops and Karst Reclamation Split, Institute of Agriculture and Tourism Poreč, J. J. Strossmayer University of Osijek, Faculty of Agriculture, Agricultural Institute Osijek, and the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Science. Prof. dr. sc. Zlatko Šatović was appointed as the head of the Centre.

In late November of 2016, a Call for Project Proposals was announced under the title “High Quality Research at the Scientific Centres of Excellence” intended exclusively for scientific centres of excellence from the STEM (science/technology/engineering/mathematics) area declared during 2014 and 2015. The total available amount of funds to be awarded as part of the Call is HRK 380,000,000.00 HRK, and the highest acceptable total value of costs for an individual project proposal is HRK 38,000,000.00.

Centre of Excellence for Biodiversity and Molecular Plant Breeding (CroP-BioDiv)